• Aggregates – Rocks, sand, gravel and other materials that are used in construction.
• Berm – An earthen barrier, covered with native plants, that provides a physical and   visual screen between public property and a quarry site. Berms also limit access to the site and help keep noise levels down in the community.
• Blasting – The process of using explosives to break large pieces of rock out of the earth.
• Buffer zone – An area surrounding a quarry that helps provide a visual and sound barrier between the quarry and the surrounding community. Buffer zones often include berms.
• Closed loop water system – A system of capturing and recycling the water used in the quarry.
• Conveyor belt – An endless, moving, flexible belt that takes rocks from one place to another around the processing plant.
• Crushers – The machines used to break big rocks down into smaller rocks. Rocks go through several different size crushers during the processing operation.
• Crushed stone – Rock that is crushed to a specific size in a quarry processing plant.
• Discharge – Water meeting environmental standards that is allowed to leave a settling pond and go into a stream or river. Water quality regulations and a quarry’s environmental permits cover water discharges.
• Drilling – The process of putting holes in the ground where explosives will be placed for blasting.
• Dust suppression – The process of reducing the amount of dust that goes into the air.
• Explosives – The material that is detonated during the blasting process to break big pieces of rock out of the earth. The explosive used in the stone industry is not dynamite, but a mixture of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel called ANFO.
• Geologist – Someone who studies nature and the earth.
• Haul trucks – Trucks that haul loads of rocks from the pit to the primary crusher at the processing plant.
• Hydrogeologist – a person who studies the way groundwater moves through soil and rock.
• Mining – the process of digging rocks out of the earth. It can be under the ground (coal mining) or above ground in an open pit quarry.
• Permitting – The process of getting approval from local and state government agencies to operate a quarry.
• Pit – Another name for a quarry. A place where rocks are dug or mined out of the earth.
• Pit loader – An excavation tool that helps move the rocks from the earth into haul trucks.
• Primary crusher – The first crusher that big rocks are crushed by. The primary crusher makes the rocks small enough to go through the secondary and tertiary crushers.
• Processing plant – Where rocks from the quarry are taken to be processed into different sizes. The processing plant begins at the primary crusher.
• Quarry – A place where rocks are dug or mined out of the earth.
• Quarry wall – The boundary of the quarry, as viewed from inside the pit. Also, the part of a quarry where blasting takes place.
• Recycling pond – A place where water is stored and recycled for use in quarry operations.
• Screening – Different size screens are used to separate rocks into piles of the same size. Rocks are passed through several different size screens during processing.
• Sediment – Sand and other matter that is in the water that we recycle. Sediment is heavier than water and settles to the bottom of a recycling pond.
• Sedimentary rocks – A type of rock that develops from the consolidation of sediments that have been deposited by one of three methods of weathering. They are as follows: mechanical, chemical, or organically extracted. Some rocks formed from these processes are sandstones and shales (mechanical), limestone and dolomite (chemical ), and marl (organic).
• Shipping loader – Shipping loaders are used to put rocks into a customer’s truck.
• Stockpile – Large piles of rocks and sand where dump trucks go to pick up loads of the construction materials.
• Vibrations – Movement caused by blasting.
• Water quality regulations – Federal, state and local laws that must be met if water is allowed to flow from a quarry site into a stream or river.

NOTE – This list of quarry related vocabulary words is based on an online educational program The Quarry Story  by Vulcan Materials Company on Social Responsibility.